What's the best hardware configuration for ROCK for huge music Library

[mnt111111]

Hi

I have a huge Music Library more than 40K Album. I try to find a solution of hardware configuration which will fit for my huge music library.

Today I’m using a NUC i7 that I have bought 3 years ago, with ROCK install on it but I have database issues all the time, I have to restore my database close every week!

So that’s the best solution for me with Roon?

Thanks for the help

[mnt111111]

This is my actual configuration

• Intel NUC7I7BNH Barebones (Intel Core i7-7567U, Disque dur Zoll 2,5 SSD + SSD M.2 SATA / PCIe SSD)- NOIR
• Crucial CT8G4SFD8213 8Go (DDR4, 2133 MT/s, PC4-17000, DRx8, SODIMM, 260-Pin) Mémoire
• Samsung SSD Interne 960 EVO (250 Go) - MZ-V6E250BW

[ged_hickman1]

Sounds like you have a hardware issue. The server might run slow as a normal symptom but database corruption isn’t normal.

[bearFNF]

Do you have another ssd for the music? I only see one listed there and that should only be for the ROCK OS. don’t want to put your music on the same drive as the OS for ROCK.
You might try going with 16 gigs of memory, especially if your are doing any DSP.

Edit:
Just found this series of posts that might explain some of what you are experiencing and what they did to fix it. Read through it and see if it helps.

Memory upgrade to 16 or 32 GB

@support I had persistent crashes and connection issues using Roon with my Nucleus+ due to the size of my library of 500,000 tracks. I’ve taken the Nucleus to a computer shop and I’d like to hear from someone who’s upgraded memory, either on a Nucleus or a NUC to comment about upgrading to 16GB OR 32GB. For people with large libraries, did 32GB make a difference or as some people have mentioned is there much difference using Roon between 16 and 32?

[Anthony_B (Tony)]

The OP in that thread hasn’t ‘fixed it’ yet though, so I would wait and see the outcome of the planned memory upgrade.

[David_Snyder]

I’ve mentioned this elsewhere, but I had a bad SO-DIMM in ROCK that caused database corruption. I was able to identify the bad module by booting a MemTest86 image and letting it run for a few hours. Highly recommended if you’re seeing symptoms like this or just after installing new memory.

MemTest86 - Official Site of the x86 Memory Testing Tool

[Rugby (aka Daniel or Big Dan)]

@David_Snyder

booting a MemTest86 image

Yep, hardware monitoring and testing is needed. Not every user knows how to download, setup a MemTest boot image.

[David_Snyder]

@Rugby

Not every user knows how to download, setup a MemTest boot image.

True, but if they can download and flash a thumb drive with the Roon OS image and get a NUC to boot from it, they can do the same for MemTest86. The process is identical.

[killdozer (Brutalise me with music)]

Memtest is also available on quite a few Live Linux USB images.

How to Run Memtest in Ubuntu 20.04

[mnt111111]

Hi all

Thanks for this advice to check the hardware memory.

I will try this, I have also checked the price for upgrading my memory to 64go. It’s closed to 300€ And if I want to buy the last Nuc generation it’s close to 1200€ with also 64go of memory so quite an investment.

Thanks all

[killdozer (Brutalise me with music)]

64GB is probably expensive overkill for 40K albums, I’d guess that 2x16GB SODIMMs would do the job at half the price and that should come with some future-proofing built-in. A decent quality M2 SSD for the database (I’m Samsung all the way here) is probably a better investment than going the full 64GB.

Good luck

[mnt111111]

Hi all

I have followed your advice and bought 2*16GB SODIMM. I have already received it and installed in my NUC. Everything seems to work correctly til now!!
I don’t know what CORE software is doing when is starting but it seems to use a lots of memory when you have a big library!! I hope, the developper could optimize this phase.
I will try to add more album in my library to see if the application is capable to work even with more album
Thanks

[killdozer (Brutalise me with music)]

@mnt111111

I don’t know what CORE software is doing when is starting but it seems to use a lots of memory when

It’s possibly analysing the tracks for pretty waveforms, dynamic range and the like.

Audio Analysis

@mnt111111

I hope, the developper could optimize this phase.

I suspect they have, it’s a one off job and they’ve favoured performance. It’s multi-threaded and you can change the number of cores used to do this in the settings.

[mnt111111]

Hi

On my configuration I have set only1 Core and fast!

Thanks

[Michael_Harris]

If you have more cores then let Roon have some of them. I have an 8 Core machine and I let Roon have 5 of them.
I often add between 50 and 100 tracks at a time and that way Roon gets them analysed in a minute or so and the music continues to play without issue.
I have always given up to about 75% as I do not want to have playback messed with.
If you don’t have heavy DSP for multiple Zones that should work perfectly and get through your library much quicker.

[mnt111111]

Hi

Ok I will try to increase the number of Core on this task.

I would like to notice that for a dedicaded machine on linux setting 32Go of memory it’s quite a lot!!

Also I have an other thing which is doesn’t work correctly it’s when I add new files on my storage (Synology NAS) Roon dorens’t add them automaticaly I have to force manually the check of new files ?? Is it normal? Are is there something I have to do?

Thanks

[Michael_Harris]

That’s a known problem as the Nas cannot tell Roon that new files have arrived, and hence needs to scan.

It’s one of the reasons I eventually bought an internal 2tb drive for my Nuc, though an external USB one works just fine (but my Akasa case doesn’t look like art deco with a USB drive sitting on top of it).

My music still fits in 2TB so I have a synchronisation job that copies music to both Roon and my Synology (for Plex and backup) at the same time. We have invested so much in our music that we will need to back it up everywhere